Shifting tactics, Uber hits city on race issues

Uber is trying to out-progressive New York City’s progressive leadership. Or at least that’s the ride-hail app’s latest tactic in a prolonged battle with city government.

During a press conference Tuesday at Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem, Uber enlisted city clergy and elected officials to decry a City Hall-backed bill that would temporarily cap growth on for-hire vehicle companies while the city conducts a traffic congestion study. The proposed legislation, Uber argued, was anti-progressive and would bring disproportionate harm to communities of color.

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“There’s a lot of discussion in this city by some leaders about progressive politics, economic equality and economic opportunity,” David Plouffe, Uber’s chief adviser, said. “What they’re doing is killing over 10,000 jobs.”

The press conference, which included one member of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, came one day after Plouffe met with Sharpton, reportedly to enlist Sharpton to oppose the growth cap. Sharpton, a friend and occasional political ally of Mayor Bill de Blasio, "has questions" about the bill’s impact on the city’s minorities, Crain’s reports.

Sharpton’s support is yet unconfirmed, although Plouffe said they had had a “good discussion” about Uber’s role in the city.

Involvement from Sharpton could further complicate political groups’ tangled affiliations with the app. On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush spoke in support of Uber, while Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton took a more skeptical stance toward worker protections in the sharing economy.

On Tuesday, supporters argued a cap on future Uber growth would harm people of color by limiting job growth and restricting ride access for minority communities in the outer boroughs.

“There’s a discriminatory policy that’s happening against our communities,” said Assemblyman Michael Blake, a Bronx Democrat. “When you look at the stats very clearly, let’s be clear about what they are showing: more than 25 percent of Uber rides are outerborough, as opposed to six percent in Manhattan.”

The city offers starkly different figures. According to the Taxi and Limousine Commission, 72 percent of for-hire vehicle pickups occur in Manhattan, with Uber making the largest footprint in the borough.

Blake said African-American and Latino men were more likely to be discriminated against when hailing a taxi on the street.

Gerald Seabrooks, a Brooklyn-based bishop, said increased employment opportunities would be a boon to minority communities.

But Uber’s reputation isn’t necessarily progressive. The company has come under fire for taking large commissions from drivers’ paychecks, and for fighting to classify drivers as contract workers, rather than employees entitled to benefits.

De Blasio’s own administration has also accused for-hire companies like Uber of prioritizing the wealthy over the working class.

“What it boils down to is this,” taxi commissioner Meera Joshi said in June. “At some point, I strongly believe the city needs to step in and make sure that there is a balance between those of us who choose instant gratification and convenience of travel with private vehicles and the much larger group who cannot afford private car service."

Joshi and other city officials say a recent surge in for-hire vehicles might be responsible for a 9 percent decrease in average Manhattan traffic speeds from 2010 to 2014. In capping for-hire vehicle growth, supporters of the City Hall bill say the city could study the correlation between ride-hail apps and traffic congestion.

But Uber supporters say such a cap is unnecessary.

“We didn’t do that when the police department was dysfunctional,” the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, a member of the National Action Network, said at Tuesday's press conference. “We didn’t say, we are not going to have police while we study the police. We said, let’s keep doing what we do.”